By Edward J. Thomas –
There is a sizeable amount of debate going on if Americans are actually more polarized than ever when it comes to economics, social reform, international relations and health issues. A new course for civil debate is needed to navigate these discussions effectively. One recent Gallup poll, in fact, argued that American ideological identification remained pretty stable during 2024 with 37 percent of respondents holding political views that were “very conservative” or “conservative”, while 34 percent claimed “moderate” views. One-quarter of respondents reported being “liberal” or “very liberal.”
The Gallup poll may be right that the political landscape hasn’t shifted as much in recent years as some suspect, but it is certainly hard to tell that from all the shouting and confrontations being seen online, in Congress and on the streets and in the bars and living rooms of America.
Ultimately, it may not be the ideologies that are changing but the way they are expressed and the unwillingness of the most actively to discuss issues in a respectful and productive manner.
Researchers at Ohio State University claim they may have found a productive way to tone down the rhetoric and it apparently comes from the mouth of babes—well fourth graders.
The team reports it found success in a social studies curriculum for fourth graders based on teaching what is called “civic competencies.” The course teaches young children to discuss and argue about meaningful problems in a respectful and productive way.
The research showed that the students participating in the curriculum over the course of a school year significantly improved their argumentation skills and disciplinary thinking.
“This will give them the ability to collaborate, communicate effectively and consider multiple perspectives,” said Professor Tzu-Jung Lin, the study’s co-author. “We aim to help cultivate a new generation of responsible community members and citizens who can work together to help solve complex issues.”
The university’s findings were developed after 106 fourth-grade students and six social studies teachers from two public school districts in the Columbus area participated in a social studies curriculum called Digital Civic Learning (DCL), which was developed at Ohio State.
“Students as young as elementary school start to encounter important issues in the world around them that don’t have a right or wrong answer,” Lin said. “What we are trying to do with the DCL curriculum is to teach children the process of being a better thinker about these issues and learn how to resolve conflicts around them.”
One part of the curriculum focused on disciplinary thinking, which involves teaching students how to read, write and think differently depending on the subject matter. DCL encourages students to think in four different ways: geographic, economic, historical and civic.
“When students learn disciplinary thinking, they learn how professionals in each of these four disciplines approach a problem,” said co-author Haeun Park, a doctoral student at Ohio State University.
“And later in the curriculum, students learn how to use all of those types of thinking in an interdisciplinary way. For example, students may learn to think about a specific problem from an economics point of view, but also from the view of a historian.”
This approach is designed to help students build their argumentation skills. This involved students developing an argument and counterargument about different positions using their disciplinary thinking skills.
Students honed their disciplinary thinking and argumentation skills through stories they were given in which characters faced some sort of challenge, such as living in a food desert where healthy, affordable food options are limited.
“These stories are designed to be real-life problems that don’t have a set answer,” said study co-author Kevin Fulton, a doctoral student at Ohio State University. “The students can bring their own perspectives to the conversation, and they can agree on all the facts and disagree on what a good solution looks like.”
Researchers measured the impact DCL had on the students by having them write essays at the beginning of the school year and at the end on meaningful problems that were relevant to their lives. Trained coders then rated how well the students did on using disciplinary thinking and argumentation skills in their essays at the beginning of the year and then again at the end.
The results revealed widespread improvements.
While DCL was developed initially for fourth graders, the researchers believe that similar approaches could help heal some of the fractures in our society.
“We believe that if we can embrace these civic competencies, we can find common ground, even with our different beliefs and different backgrounds,” Lin said. “We can still work together as a group to solve our problems.”
